Lone wolf: Into the night
by Skrillexes
Summary: Noble Six was a lone wolf. Commander Shepard was a survivour. Put them together and all you get is a crazy crew, massive weapons and wild ride dropping into hell. Buckle up, into the night.
1. Chapter 1 Introduction Part I

People say stupid things when they don't mean them. People say stupid things when they want people to listen. People also say stupid things when they want someone to say something stupid back.

Zac-B312 was the one to rebel against that.

Zac lay in the pod for River to wake him. She really stood for _Reality Intelligence Vitality Enterprise Remembrance. _

So _River_ was her name for short. The two were a team, a really good team. She had been there when no one else would be, after their ship had been destroyed River had ejected the cryogenic room with escape pods into space right near a singularity where time would cease to exist until someone picked them up. He heard the latch opening slowly and hissing. They had been stranded for years until their cryo pod cleared the singularity, River came up on her pedestal beside him she was around the same size as Cortana when in miniature version. Her appearance was a young female with long hair, tied up in a loose bun often changing in and out, her attire resembled a lab coat.

"River?" He croaked.

She bought up a small datapad going through it. "Zac, are you awake?" She questioned with the voice of Jennifer Hale.

"Yes, River how long?" He questionED.

"Eight years four months twenty five days seven hours and thirty eight minutes-thirty nine" She corrected.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"I don't know" River moved a piece of hair from her 'eyes'.

"What do you mean you don't know" Zac questioned.

"Zac I don't recognise any of this system! And-" Alarms went off.

"River!?" He questioned yanking her from her pedestal.

"We have to meet our guests apparently. They're trying to hack my network. Wait..." She crossed her arms biting her cheek trying to solve something. "I'm picking up a signal. It's...Zac, they're human" River says.

"What?" Zac demanded.

"They're human! They're technology is a little more advanced than wherever we are should be. I'm attempting to hail them, oh they want to talk to you" She crossed her arms sending him the signal.

"This is Captain Anderson of the Normandy with just one question. Who the hell are you?"


	2. Chapter 2 Introduction Part II

"What do you mean not from this universe?" Zac demanded.

"Exactly that, the singularity obviously transported us through it's rift to this universe. I'd give a boring explanation but you'd get bored quick and that doesn't tend to work to well, that's if you remember Rudaius VII" she smirked. "This Anderson is coming aboard. He's record is...interesting?" River quoted.

"You got access?" Zac asked.

"A little hacking doesn't do anyone any harm" River responded.

Zac rolled his eyes at his AI. He attached her to his armor keeping her hidden from harm, no telling if these guys actually liked AI's right?

The back door to the cryogenic room and a dark-skinned man entered in blue uniform. He looked at Zac in wonder. "What are you?" He asked a bit freaked. _Zac helmet off! Now!_ River said mentally to him. Zac did as he was told. "Spartan B312 at your service" He said revealing his short crew cut and green grey eyes.

"Your human" This Anderson said.

"Well he sure isn't a Brute" River said in loud speaker.

"What is that!?" Anderson asked concerned.

River appeared on Zac's shoulder. "I'm an AI. You may call me River" She introduced. "I am here to serve humanity and Zac as he is my Spartan" River added. Anderson's eyes widened as he pulled out a gun.

"Stop!" Zac grabbed his arm carefully stopping him from shooting her avatar. "She's a friend!" Zac said.

"All AI's are crazy!" Anderson said.

"I think it's time we told you where we are from Captain" River appeared behind him in human size she was only a few centimetres smaller than Anderson as he tried to reach her through her holo graphic form. "You may want to take a seat because it's a hell of a story"

Anderson blinked as River fully appeared explaining the situation. Reach, Covenant, Spartans and Insurrection River sure knew how to catch a person's attention if she really needed to. "That's a hell of a story" He agreed.

"Unfortunately it's true. We've been stranded here for eight years on shutdown mode, the Covenant are our enemies. Humanity where we are from is on the brink, and that's the easy news" River responded.

Anderson walked towards the door looking at the two. "Well are you coming?" He questioned.

"River?" Zac consulted.

"I aim to please. Follow ahead Captain" She smirked.


	3. Chapter 3 Introduction Part III

River kept quiet the entire way as she 'walked' with the two men. 'Interesting' She puzzled. 'They're ships are almost familiar to those of the Covenant but a little more human friendly' She added the thought to her data thought of memories.

"Your AI, how long have you had her?" Anderson asked Zac.

"Four years we have been partnered and her name is River!" Zac responded a bit hostile.

"Cool it LT!" River laughed. "He didn't know and also I have a question. Why does it list a race called Asari? Are they another version of humanity?" She questioned tilting her head curious.

"No they are a different race entirely. Aliens" Anderson answered. She sensed that Zac had stiffened.

_Not the bad aliens we know _She sent the message to him and zapped a small spark in his arm to stop him from freaking. _Move it Soldierboy!._

River then added everything she managed to hack onto her data before erasing any trace of her being in their systems. "I see, if you will forgive us but where Zac and I are from people are xenophobic. The Covenant made sure of that when they attacked us, after annihilating us to the brink, we were never going to be near ready" She spoke with bitter regret.

"That was kind of the point of the Spartan III program" Zac interrupted their chatter.

"As a way to save humanity?" Anderson asked.

"We needed a way to save them. Buy more time so we could have a future" River crossed her arms defensively as usual.

"For an AI you have an interesting point of view River" Anderson led them into the airlock.

"I am a 'smart' AI, I feel more human than that of a normal AI. May I ask why you tried to shoot me earlier?" River questioned puzzled.

"All synthetic life that is in AI form is nearly insane, you are barely an exception to thinking that" Zac breathed in a little threatened and River zapped him again out of annoyance.

"I can promise I won't kill anyone on purpose for my own advantage" She said.

"I'm supposed to trust that?" Anderson faced her avatar.

"I don't make a promise I can't keep. It's not my way"


	4. Chapter 4 Explaination Part I

**Someone wrote a review with a few questions, if they had of waited it would have come out later but because they wanted answers I decided to give them it and I intend to keep the chapters short but longer than they had been in past, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and following this story. Skrillexes**

They entered the Normandy airlock. River downloaded the entire ship schematics just in case they needed an emergency exit. As soon as they entered the war room River felt Zac tense, it felt like a full battle station ready to prep for when the covanent attacked

. "Shepard" Anderson greeted a red haired woman who looked at him saluting.

"Anderson Sir," She nodded. "We're ready to salvage the...who or what is that?" She trailed off.

This Shepard as River noticed looked at Zac curiously.

"Sierra Three-One-Two of the UNSC ma'am at your service" Zac saluted.

"Commander Jane Shepard, Alliance" Shepard responded.

"Care to explain why you parked you huge ship in our path?"

She looked at his armor and at his height, probably guessing if she could get the same thing, it made River sadly and silently chuckle in amusement a normal person like the woman wouldn't be able to live in the MJOLINER armor without their bones being crushed. It was a proven fact, after what happened to an ODST when they tried on Noble Seven's gear when she was out of her armor...it wasn't a pleasant memory having to take away the body.

"River can explain it but we were stranded Ma'am" Zac casually loosened a little.

"You found another person like him sir!?" Shepard asked in disbelief.

"Soldier?" Anderson gave a pointed look at Zac who activated the portable holo pedestal.

River came up with her same appearance as before in full human size this time, she was only a few centimetres shorter than Shepard in her full height which was really beginning to annoy her that she couldn't be taller if she wanted to.

"I am River. _Reality Intelligence Vitality Enterprise Remembrance unit. _Here to serve" She waved a hand as her data pad came in hand . "Ask away, I know you have questions Commander and we have some in return" River added looking at her pad.

"How the hell does Reality have intelligence?" Shepard questioned.

"All of reality is based on the fact that it's real. For it to be real it had to be alive in molecule's or it's genetic structure at one point ergo giving it the part to evolve which requires some intelligence, even if it's so little it doesn't register on any scale it's still there, anything else?"

"How did you get stranded?" Anderson questioned.

Zac froze bending his head a little upset trying not to let it show as he had been trained River bought up a projection of Reach before it fell and he could see how much he hadn't seen it's beauty.

"Reach, our main military planet fell to the hands of a group of advanced alien races banded together to destroy humanity on something called the Great Journey. Zac met me three years before that happened I was given to him as a safety protocol was activated to keep my data safe, when Reach fell however Zac got us off reach in a rust bucket ship which was fantastic piloting by the way,"

She made a jab at Zac making him smirk. "And with that we were shot off course to a singularity, I managed to throw the ship into an orbit so we would clear the singularity in a matter of years but freezing the ship's hold on time." River turned around as Shepard followed her in circles examining her bit by bit.

"So just a regular day for a Spartan" River summed up.

"What's a Spartan?" Anderson questioned.

Zac smirked. "You don't want to know"


	5. Chapter 5 Explaination Part II interlude

_One month later._

River wandered around the ship's system heading down to the engine room and appearing up on a screen where she saw a male engineer jump at her sudden appearance. Most were getting used to the idea of her appearing everywhere so they managed to copy the portable holographic pedestal Zac had with him and placed them in every room so she could interact with people.

"You seem uneasy at my arrival, Engineer Adams?" She questioned.

"Scared me River, anything you need?" Adams asked her placing up his omnitool.

She crossed her arms and made a face.

"I'm bored!" She complained. "Can you make a virus that won't harm the ship or something to keep me busy for a long time? This is just so annoying, I've sorted all the files checked over the ships courses and programs for future references as well as all the crew's service records. There is literally nothing to do"

Adams laughed at her, then accessed his omnitool opening a program. "This is called Tetris, you'll spend hours trying to beat it. Good luck"

She smiled and left heading up to the armory to see Zac checking over his armor again.

"You know you do that enough and it goes into lockdown" River mumbled.

"Then you can unlock it" Zac responded.

"I've activated the Spartan III frequency beacon, wait for a response. Zac I can read something on your Neural system telling me something is wrong, what?" She demanded.

"River I don't...This is hard to explain!" He answered.

"Seven?" She guessed. It was a hole in one and she knew it.

"Yeah, just thinking if things had gone better she wouldn't have..."

"She knew the risks of the mission. Running the ship into the-"

"River please. Don't. Just go" She nodded and moved out.

Zac sighed. Pulling out the beacon in his suit he deactivated it. River tried being hopeful that they were able to get back to their own universe, but then again she was programmed to be optimistic when a lot of other AI's were dull and livid of human emotion. She would analyse every possible way Zac would get out of a mission when a normal AI would only calculate to win.

"One of these days" he mumbled. "Hmm. People say stupid things when they don't mean them. People say stupid things when they want people to listen. People also say stupid things when they want someone to say something stupid back. This is stupid to hope"

**_Hi haven't updated in a long time! Great to be back I need help on deciding on a name and have two names so... _**

**_Keira Dylans _**

**_Keira Byrne (pronounced brin)_**

**_Haven't decided and hope you can help me choose. Please R&R and send in a review. Enjoy yourselves!_**


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